Reason for Everything
by reeselynrose
Summary: This is a fan-fiction for The School Story by Andrew Clements. Natalie writes another story, Zoe and Natalie are now 15, and Zoe is an older sister!


**The friends looked at each other and smiled. And Natalie thought, **_**The way this feels right now? I want to put this feeling into a book someday.**_

The feeling of friendship, of happiness, of pride, of relief, of accomplishment.

_**The way this feels right now?**_

The feeling of summer ending, school starting, and being with friends, especially Zoe.

_**I want to put this feeling into a book someday...**_

Natalie Nelson looked up from her writing as she heard a new outburst of "singing" coming from Alyssa, Zoe's baby sister.

"I, A, I, da, ay, naa!"

Natalie looked over at her long-time best friend Zoe Reisman, who had been asleep for about an hour now. She was at Zoe's house for a sleepover. This sleepover was different from all of the many others because Zoe's parents had had a baby about a month ago and so now there were the new sounds of baby to listen to. And Natalie thought, _Alyssa is so cute! Zoe is so lucky to have a little sister like her!_

That thought was soon proved wrong as Natalie finally finished writing, put down her pencil and notebook, and made the impossible attempt to fall asleep. Alyssa would NOT stop "singing" and it was driving Natalie crazy! _That wretched baby, _Natalie thought, _is being so noisy she's probably keeping the whole neighborhood awake! _She knew it was a school night and 10:00 but she'd never get any sleep at this rate!

Moments later, Natalie could hear Mrs. Reisman get out of bed and calm down Alyssa. Finally! Some sleep!

The next day, when Natalie woke up, Zoe was already up, dressed, and doing her hair. So she hurried and slipped into her shorts, t-shirt, and sneakers and caught up with Zoe who was now pouring Honeycombs, Golden Grahams, and Cheerios into a bowl in the kitchen.

"Wow, Zoe! Do you usually mix cereals or is it just my forgetful brain getting to me?"

"Nah, I just started this. One day I accidently poured some Corn Flakes into a bowl when I wanted Cheerios instead. I didn't want to waste the Corn Flakes, so I just added some Cheerios to the Corn Flakes and it tasted good!"

"Hmm, maybe I should try it!" Natalie said as she began getting a box of Corn Flakes, a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a bowl, a spoon, and the milk.

"Mmm, I bet that'll be good, Natalie!" Zoe remarked as she noticed which cereals Natalie was going to mix. She got a spoonful of her own mixture and tasted it. "Mmmm, this is good! But the Golden Grahams' taste over power the Honeycombs' and the Cheerios' taste."

Natalie finished pouring some milk into her bowl and tasted her mixture. "Mmm, cinnamony-corny cereal!" She took another bite. "Delicious!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you should try this mixture sometime."

"Okay, I will."

They finished breakfast in silence, quickly brushed their teeth, grabbed their backpacks, and got outside just as Zoe's bus pulled up to the driveway.

Later that day, in math, Natalie passed Zoe a note. Zoe opened it and read it:

_ZeeZee - I have most of another book written, would you like to read it?_

_ -Cassandra _

Zoe added a little to the note and passed it back to Natalie.

_Yes of course! How about today after school in the library, like last time?_

_ -ZeeZee_

_ P.S. I can't wait!_

After school in the library, Natalie handed Zoe a familiar blue folder with a rubber band around it, this time with a different story inside. Zoe eagerly took the folder, sat down, and removed the rubber band. She lifted the folder cover and began reading...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all, I do not own The School Story by Andrew Clements and write for nothing but pure pleasure. The only thing I own are the new characters I put in, such as Alyssa, and Natalie's new story.

Second, what do you think? Great? Okay? Horrible? Please review and tell me what you think! I hope you're excited for the next chapter because it is going to be the first chapter of Natalie's new story!


End file.
